Your visionary Internet vision
Recently, several people participated to create a collaborative report on the Future of Search. Their well-thought-out contributions made for an intriguing read, and perhaps managed to spark some shifts in thinking.
Along that vein, and following the response to yesterday’s post, I’ve been thinking about what the Internet has the potential to be. I’d like to invite you to participate with me.
As I said yesterday, I firmly believe that we can create anything we choose to—as long as we refuse to accept anything less. We can create a Unifying Interface that allows us to access the brilliance of 1,000 alternative search engines. We can create personalization that doesn’t compromise privacy.
So frequently what we aim for is defined by fear or current circumstances:
- “Our company can’t love its customers; people will think we’re weird.”
- “We can’t build a good privacy system because the Internet isn’t set up for it.”
- “If I talk about what’s really important to me, like fulfilling my potential as a human being, you’ll think I’m unprofessional.”
I’m guilty of this.
I started writing this blog, and I figured I’d better establish some authority by talking about Google’s metrics and Yahoo’s KPIs. The truth is, though, that that’s not what this blog is about. It’s not even what this company is about.
At its most profound level, this company is about empowering human freedom.
I meet with Branton Kenton-Dau, the director of VortexDNA, every couple of weeks to chat about the direction we’re taking and make sure we’re on the same page. Nearly every time, he ups the ante on me: he urges me to be more myself, to be as genuine as possible, to be unafraid to discuss those aspects of our humanity that resonate at the deepest level.
Every time he says this to me, I get chills. I begin to feel the potential of what we, you and I, could share through this blog. And then I come back and write about Facebook. That’s not liberating. That’s not empowering. That’s me, wanting to fit in with the crowd.
My purpose in life is to be an uplifting presence, and in service to that purpose, I’d like to invite you to dream with me.
For now, we’ll start with a dream about the Internet, and see how it goes. The basis for the dream is this:
What is your vision for the highest potential of the Internet?
Here are the ground rules:
- You may envision anything you want. This is freeform blue-sky thinking.
- If you find yourself with an idea, but find yourself saying, “That’ll never work because…,” put it down anyway.
- Write in the comments section, email me your ideas (kaila @ vortexdna . com), or share them with friends and colleagues—but encourage conversation.
- If you email me your ideas, please indicate whether you’d like me to keep them confidential, share them anonymously, or share them and acknowledge you.
- If you want to talk about something related to the human potential, but unrelated to the Internet, go ahead.
I’ll put my own ideas of what the Internet could be like in tomorrow’s post, but don’t wait ’til then if you want to add a comment here.
I look forward to hearing from you!
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:43 pm
OK K here goes……
In asking what is the highest potential of the internet, you take a position (and I’m sure given what else you’ve said that you don’t mean to) that the internet is the important factor here.
It isn’t - the internet is the latest tool in a long progression of tools that started (I guess) when Ug found a fallen tree trunk and used it to facilitate moving a large rock - thus inventing the wheel. The printing press, iron, steam power, the telephone, the internal combustion engine and, yes, the internet are enablers of human potential - no more and no less.
As such how about you word the question thusly; “What is the ultimate potential of humanity and what part does the internet have in the enabling of that potential?” If that?s the question then here goes my answer…..
We?re inefficient beasts, so much of our time is spent performing tasks that are menial and less than beneficial on an aggregate level. Meanwhile a huge proportion of the world?s population is just trying to survive each day in turn. Disparity in terms of distribution of wealth, disease, hunger and poverty are all limiting factors of the aggregate potential of humankind. It is through collaboration that some of these issues will be solved ? many people like to use the mapping of the human genome as a good example of mass collaboration for a beneficial outcome, this project should be seen as an example of the norm in the future.
So to answer the question ? the internet allows efficiency in terms of collaboration, it reduces the distance between cultures and can be the catalyst for a better understanding between people. It can facilitate scientific and technical discoveries by aggregating knowledge and thought potential in one common direction.
And yes we come back to Facebook ? but don?t beat yourself up for thinking of it as a good example of potential (when all it seems to be is an excuse to waste some time at work). Facebook is an embryonic example of aggregation of thought, of communication and of potential ? just imagine a situation where the scale of Facebook was transferred into human benefit projects ? magic……
It?s about doing two things ? finding the right contextual framework for an individual?s beliefs, wants and needs and translating that into a broader contest, the wants and needs of humanity. It?s why VortexDNA, in its ultimate application would both be a push and pull mechanism ? giving the best to people as they require and taking the best from people as society requires.
How that actually looks in application I have no idea ? we?re on a journey that will decide its own course.
Fun ride huh?????
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Network from matrix,
Matrix from node,
To coin a modern ode.
Ben’s comment is brilliant, taking an important long view not only about the structure and tools of the internet but its effect.
I can see that the future of the internet is the history of communication and is altering the ribs of the world - transportation, shelter, energy, food, education and so on. Toward very tangible stuff indeed.
The other day I browsed a number of Top 100 lists posting the most popular sites. I noticed most are news about the internet and views about the internet, or its technologies, and in the main, a self-congratulating crowd too. It’s as if a world of car dealers discussing a world of car dealers. I look forward to the enabling of much more diversity in the focal choice available where the future of the internet is the history of community.
Each can reach,
So reach to each,
The best restitution
For any institution.
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:02 am
Ben,
Wow, you hit the nail on the head! Your re-phrase is exactly right:
What is the ultimate potential of humanity and what part does the internet have in the enabling of that potential?
And this is where Brian is going as well—the ultimate potential of humanity with regards to “transportation, shelter, energy…”
You guys are both helping me to bring this discussion back to the point that truly matters: we are truly free and glorious creatures, and the Internet exists only to serve us. Given that, what should it look like and what role should it play?
Thank you both.
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:42 am
[...] yesterday’s post, I asked you for your vision of the highest potential of the Internet. Ben Kepes kindly and [...]
October 10th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
[...] a week ago, I started a series of pieces on human potential and your vision for the future of the Internet. I received some wonderful comments from Ben Kepes and Brian Hayes, and the following day I put [...]